Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Two New UGA Initiatives

If you've been reading this blog you know I've been serving as Vice President at the Utah Genealogical Association this year. They have been working on some great new projects that I wanted to share with you if you haven't seen them on the UGA blog. Since I wrote it over there, I'm going to cut and paste the announcement here. I'm not plagarism if it's my own writing right? We've been working hard on this projects and we'd love to have your feedback.

The Utah Genealogical Association is pleased to announce the launch of two education initiatives for genealogists of all kinds--the UGA Genealogy Training and Tutorial Library (UGaTT) and the UGA Virtual Chapter. An introductory overview of both virtual projects covers the designs and plans for each project as well as the dates and stages of roll-out. The introductory video is a great way to understand the sweep of the plans and get excited about the progress that is coming as we take UGA into its 40th anniversary year.

First, we are pleased to present the first tutorials of the UGA Genealogy Training and Tutorial Library (UGaTT). The topics covered so far are Top U.S. Research Records, Organization for Genealogists, and The Five-step Genealogy Research Process. These first tutorials are the first three pieces of the "Bronze Level" of the program. As the program continues to roll-out there will be over 100 topics covered with a bronze, silver and gold level self-evaluation program in place to to test your comprehension and track your improvement. Participants earn pins and certificates for program completion. Parts of the Bronze level will always be free to the general public, with the more advanced Bronze, Silver and Gold Levels available to UGA members as they are completed. Please fill out the survey to give us your feedback on this initial release.

Second, the first beta version of our Virtual Chapter has been released as well. The meeting is one hour long and includes an introduction and a presentation by Barry Ewell entitled "How to Effectively Conduct Genealogy Research on the Internet." Again, please give us your comments and feedback in a short 6 question survey. A second beta will be released on November 23rd with Janet Hovorka presenting "Archiving Your Genealogy Work Using the Library of Alexandria Rule" These two beta videos will be released to the general public and regular live sessions of the virtual chapter will commence in January with access to all UGA members.